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Teeth worn down - literally

LurcherGirl

LurcherGirl

Mama Doe
My rabbit Tommy, which is at least 8 years old, has been struggling with his breathing when resting and has in the past had a dental abscess which he managed to overcome with the help of streptacare.

When my vet checked his teeth today, he said that his back molars are worn down completely, one more than the other. I have never heard of this before (it's usually the other way round, isn't it - not worn down enough) and wonder whether anyone else has? Is this something that happens in their old age (though my last very old rabbit still had excellent teeth at 11 years old), or could it be that the abscess has affected or a new abscess is affecting the growth of those teeth?
 
It sounds like stage 4 in acquired Dental Disease. This is where the teeth become diseased and stop growing. Sometimes the crowns remain as 'stumps' or they can break off completely. Given your Rabbit's history of abscesses it may be that there is some active infection going on again.
 
Thanks. We are pretty sure that there is an infection going on again as the usual eye is very weepy again too, hence why we are putting him back on streptacare. He's never really had any dental issues until he had the dental abscess (my rabbits on are mainly hay and only a small amount of pellets as well as some greens), and he's been clear from that for probably about a year now (which is amazing as my vet had very little hope of recovery).
 
He hasn't as yet, we will see how the streptacare works (which worked extremely well last time) and go from there. I don't necessarily want to put a potentially very old rabbit under anaethetics if we can sort it without it and then there is of course the question whether it would be treatable even if we did find out exactely what the problem is! That's a discussion I will need to have with my vet if streptacare doesn't work.

PS. He is at least 8 years old, but we think he may be older than that as he was a stray when I adopted him and he was guessed at around 18 months to 2 years when I adopted him 6 years ago! I suspect now he was perhaps quite a bit older than that.
 
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I'm afraid I don't know anything about the illness but just wanted to mention that an x-ray does not always require a GA - quiet rabbits can be done conscious, I think it depends on the view required though :)
 
I have indeed had conscious x-rays done on a couple of calm rabbits, but little Tommy is unfortunately quite skittish and wouldn't keep still enough for an x-ray or indeed still enough to actually stay on the x-ray table... :? So unfortunately this isn't an option with him.
 
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